Tonight on 20/20 they interviewed Diane Down's daughter who she was pregnant with during the trial. It was pretty interesting.
Tonight on 20/20 they interviewed Diane Down's daughter who she was pregnant with during the trial. It was pretty interesting.
I watched it to. Always wondered what happened to that baby.
Ann Rule don't look to good. I'm gonna miss her when
something happens to her.
wow, when i turned on dateline, i had no idea it would be about diane & the baby she gave up~
my son & i had just watched 'small sacrifices' not to long ago, so was interested in watching too~
i too always wondered what happened to her~
& that clip they showed of diane at her 2008 parole hearing, man she still cray as shit~
I saw a commercial for 20/20 Friday evening, but Diane's name wasn't mentioned. However, as soon as they showed a photo of that horse-faced puss, I knew it was gonna be verrry interesting. It's on my Tivo, and as soon as the workmen outside slow down enough so I can hear myself think, I will be checking it out.
Yeah I didn't recognize her at first!
She did write to her in prison, which she later regretted. She wrote back & was all the crazy you'd expect.
I think it's online, if you want to watch it. That little girl had a hard life after she found out who show was, but she is fine now. Two wonderful people adopted her.
They did talk about the fear that she would grow up to be like DD, but they said she received so much love from her adopted family that nurture overcame nature.
I saw that on 20/20 last night, too. I'm glad her surviving kids are ok.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]peek-a-boo!!
DAMN. I thought Diane had gone off to the glue factory. Now I wish I had seen 20/20 last night, though. I always wondered what became of that baby.
Here is a picture of Becky from the Article in Glamour Magazine this month. When Downs Escaped from prison all those years ago, Becky's adoptive parents were forced to acknowledge who Becky really was to her Day Care just in case Downs tried to find her. Thats when Becky really found out her her birth mother was.
“I Found Out My Mother Was a Killer”: The Rebecca Babcock Story
Rebecca Babcock always knew she was adopted, but at 16 she was rocked by the discovery that her birth mother, Diane Downs, was a murderer, convicted of shooting her own children. In a Glamour exclusive, Rebecca talks about how Downs has haunted her life, and how she’s finally moving on.
WATCH: Becky Babcock’s Story: 20/20 and Glamour Glamour magazine’s Wendy Naugle tells how girl found out her mom was a killer.
May 13, 2010
by Lisa Grace Lednicer and Eric Mason
- "I Found Out My Mother Was a Killer": The Rebecca Babcock Story
It could have been any ordinary teen date night: Rebecca Babcock, then 16, settled down with her boyfriend on his red futon to watch a video. She had no idea what she was about to see until the credits began to roll. Two minutes into the opening scene, the TV screen filled with Farrah Fawcett yelling, “Someone just shot my kids! There’s blood. Blood everywhere!” Becky wanted to look away but couldn’t. And as the moments ticked by, she realized: It was the horrifying story of her birth mother, Elizabeth Diane Downs. Becky knew she was adopted; she even knew that her birth mother was in prison. But she’d never wanted to know the details of her mother’s crime, and no one had volunteered them. That night, she says, “as I watched, the horror of what my mother did became real.”
The events of the spring night in 1983 when Downs committed her crimes are almost too gruesome to imagine.
Downs was driving on a rural road outside Springfield, Oregon, when her three children—Danny, three, Cheryl, seven, and Christie, eight—were shot. Cheryl died from her wounds, Danny was paralyzed and Christie suffered a disabling stroke. Downs claimed that a lone gunman with shaggy hair had tried to kill her children while attempting to steal her car. Prosecutors found evidence that proved otherwise, and charged Downs with the crime. Her motive, they believed: The man she had been dating didn’t want kids.
The case made headlines across the nation, in part because, during the nine-month investigation, Downs got pregnant again by a different man. Chained and visibly showing, Downs was a head-turning beauty who would smile for the cameras and wiggle her hips on the way to the courtroom. Reporters who covered the 1984 trial were struck by how much she enjoyed the attention. Then, in stunning testimony, Christie identified her mother as the shooter; a jury convicted Downs on all counts, and she was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. Ten days later Downs gave birth to a girl she named Amy Elizabeth, setting off another press frenzy. Reporters staked out the hospital, but authorities sneaked the newborn girl out unseen. Amy Elizabeth essentially disappeared. That girl, renamed Rebecca Babcock by her adoptive parents, has remained anonymous until now. For the first time, she has decided to come forward and tell her story about what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a notorious killer. It hasn’t been easy—for years Becky feared she might be impulsive and calculating, like her birth mother. She doubted that anyone could truly accept or love her, given her genetic legacy. Becky felt so alone and confused that she rebelled against the loving parents who took her in unconditionally, but now she wants the world to know how she’s fighting to rebuild her life and her family.
Page of 6 > >|
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/slideshow...iller-10630205
http://www.glamour.com/search/Becky-...ort=score+desc
http://kezi.com/news/local/173987
I'm glad she is doing well. They gave an update on Diane's other surviving children. Christie is a college graduate, married and a Mother. Danny is still partially paralyzed, also a college graduate and doing well.
I've often wondered just how angy Diane was that the man who proscecuted her later became the father of her kids. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when she found out.
I have Ann on my dead list for this year, sadly....
I'm glad to hear the daughter is doing well. She's a pretty girl. I had an idea of what the other kids were doing from reading Ann Rule's website, but it's nice to see an update.
Damn, every time this thread moves up, I think that shameless footface hussy bought the worm farm.
Diane looked pretty damn healthy in her parole hearing footage. Unfortunately. Does anyone know wtf she was talking about when she was holding up the book, (showing photos of relatives that were killed around the time of the kids, and a CIA or State Department contact or something like that) in the hearing? From what I could tell, it seems there is **gasp** a new conspiracy theory as to who really killed her kids. I am sure all the bushy haired strangers out there took a deep breath of relief.
DD's daughter, Rebecca, is a beautiful young woman-I hope she achieves her goal of going to medical school.
Mrs. Watson-I'm afraid you're on the mark having Ann Rule on your dead list for this year. Mentally, she seems to still be just fine, but I noticed she stayed seated during the interview, and oy! her sadly balding head!
That footage of Diane talking about the night her kids were shot was unreal--how she jokingly says "I'm throwing the keys!"--crazy b*tch!!
Who really killed her kids, oh Blah BLAH AND blah, Diane, now STFU.
I watched that documentary re Diane's daughter. If you pause it when they show the letters Diane sent her they become very scary and threatening. Does anyone have a link to Diane's parole hearing? They showed a bit of it in the documentary.
Andrea
Last edited by Andrea; 05-15-2010 at 06:58 PM. Reason: spelling
I am wondering whatever became of Diane's ex-husband--the one who is the biological father of Christie. I believe she had an affair and that Danny is the product of that affair, but she was still married to Christie's dad at the time, was she not?
I'm guessing he did not want the kids, and that's why the attorney was able to adopt them?
Here in Oregon we just roll our eyes and repeat a silent wish that women like Diane Downs and Tonya Harding would just disappear from earth <<<Rolls eyes very hard>>>
There was the surrogate baby too...wonder whatever became of that child?
Rebecca looks like her mom, but she's beautiful. I guess she'll never know who the dad was? She probably doesn't want to know.
Wow, and she has a rose tattoo, too. But on her leg. That is crazy.
I gotta watch this later. Glad it's online.
To PurrPurr:
I was wondering about that surrogate baby myself.
You know what is amazing is that Diane was supposedly carefully screened by the surrogacy agency. They thought she was a fine candidate to be a surrogate.
I wonder if the parents or the child know who her biological mother is?
that was back before the surrogate moms started suing. i think that maybe these *agencies* are a little more careful now....was she the bio mom, or just the host?
thanks for the link to 20/20. that whole report gave me the heebie jeebies. knowing that freak is your mother has got to be horrifying.
To New York Doll:
I think this was way back at the beginning, when all the surrogates were the biological mothers. I don't know when they started implanting the surrogates with embryos from the biological parents. But if Diane shot her kids back in 1983, this would have been a couple years prior to that.
She was the bio mom and she liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied on the application. Lies, lies, lies. My mom has my copy of Small Sacrifices, but IIRC she lied about: never having an abortion (which she did), never having trouble with deliveries (which she did) and her marital situation (said that she and hubby were happy, he was on board, etc.-they were actually divorced.) "Lew"'s wife called the surrogacy place once she found out she was doing it again and told them she had an STD (which Diane had given "Lew" and he gave to "Nora." They dropped her like a hot potato. She and her sister opened their own surrogacy clinic where they were the only 2 surrogates but acted like they had lots of surrogates waiting and they weren't involved in that part.
I just started watching the Dateline special (or was it 20/20? Whatever, it's DVR'd) and I'm at the beginning where Diane is doing a reinactment of the night for a reporter, giggling and fixing her makeup. As the mother of a 7 and 5 year old, knowing how I'd react if her story was true, I wanted to leap through the screen and strangle her.
That re-enactment is chilling! My jaw dropped when she started the giggling and bumped her cast. Psycho.
The old interviews of Diane on 20/20, wow, just watching her face, you can tell she's batshit crazy.
link to the 20/20 story...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/149559/abc-2020-mar-14-2010
I just watched it. Holy hell that woman was/is completely nuts. Those interviews of her back in the day were spin chilling. WHOA!!!!
Thanks for posting the link. What a stunning young woman Becky is!
Everyone must die but not everyone has lived
Thanks for the link!
Part of me was hoping ol' Diane had died. Oh well.
I am so glad to hear that the surviving children are doing well. Too bad Cheryl was not given a chance to do the same.
Funny thing about Diane -- if you read 'Small Sacrifices', she is described as very attractive. IMHO - she is anything but! Oy!
I am really sorry I missed that show. I am glad her children are doing well.
Just watched it on Hulu. Wow. I had never seen the reenactment she did for the police. She's laughing like it's a party! I know I read that in Small Sacrifices, but to actually see it is an entirely different thing. And the interview bit about not tying her shoes for two months-who cares? She is guilty and anyone who thinks otherwise, including her, is a damn fruitcake, IMHO.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
i never got this assesment of her either~ i remember reading in the book, that she was 'very attractive' & them breifly say something like that in the dateline special~ i just don't see it~ even if you try to put aside what she has done, which makes her ugly, but just sit & look at her, there is nothing attractive about her face one bit~
bunch of blind ass people, i guess~
That chick is even crazier than I remember!
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
I couldn't figure out WTF she was rambling about at her parole hearing. Something about Isarel??!
Everyone must die but not everyone has lived
Me either, Duchess. She was a textbook sociopath, granted, but I think it went deeper. She was/is just plain crazy.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Honest to God, I don't get the attractive thing. She looks like Mr. Ed on meth. Seriously.
I watched the rest last night, and I feel so bad for Rebecca. Can you imagine that legacy? A pawn in a trial?
And sadly, even though I haven't officially made a list in the Dead Pool, Anne Rule is at my #1 spot.
our standards of beauty these days are pretty high. and farrah played her in the movie, so when you see the real her it is rather shocking. that said, she is a total dogface.
so, someone has a kid that she is the bio mother of? that must be a fucking nightmare.
The one woman was so right - all Diane ever did was talk about herself & how things affected her. She wanted kids so they would love her & look up to her & smile at her and hug her. ::shudder:: Sick sick sick
And when she was talking about them taking her baby away from her, "I'd like to see them try!" Wow. Such denial.
What a wretch this woman is. As loony as they come, and seriously, HIDEOUSLY ugly.
I wish we could all say a common prayer for her extinction from this planet and POOF, she'd be gone.
Hungry Like a Wolf make me wanna gag vommit everytime I hear it. Her face reminds me of a sock puppet...
BUMPITY BUMP because Diane was just DENIED parole for 10 years on 12/10! Oregon state law has changed from requiring hearings every 2 years to allowing the board to extend the period up to 10 years if they see fit.
YIPPEE!!!! During those 10 years let us hope she can do something constructive - LIKE KICK THE BUCKET!!!